Frequently Asked Questions

Sorry, this isn’t our specialty. Happy Worker manufactures toys, gifts and collectibles in the thousands of toys at a time.

But all hope is not lost – if you’re looking for just one or a couple of custom toys you could try one of these happy toyful and joyful partners:

Toy Customizers – Craftspeople & hobbyists that take existing toys and rework them by hand, using a combination of crafting, sculpting and hacking. It’s most common for plastic toys like action figures and dolls. Customizers can range from hobbyists to creative professionals who dabble in their free time.

Budgets: range from low $100’s to low $1,000’s per toy

Find a Toy Customizer: by searching “toy customizers” online, or by asking around in toy-focused online forums & communities

If you’re just looking for a prototype (and not a full production run), then no. Prototyping is a part of every order we create, but we can only prototype toys we have a committed production order for. We’re unable to create standalone prototypes as we’re a manufacturer first and foremost.

It depends on the type of toy, its materials, its size, and the design of the toy, along with other nitty gritty details. Some toy orders are in the tens of thousands of dollars, while others are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We sincerely appreciate you thinking of us with your new toy concept. But – and unfortunately it’s a big but – we’re unable to consider ideas from outside our team or outside our clients’ teams. Sorry! We’re a happy contract manufacturer for our clients and partners. Our clients hire us to collaboratively manufacture toys and collectibles, and our clients choose how they want to use their toys, whether it be for wholesaling, retailing, convention exclusives, or marketing/promotions.

Happy Worker doesn’t typically work with toy inventors to prototype and manufacture their toy inventions. We specialize in working with brands, retailers, companies and agencies that want to create toys and collectibles for resale, gifting, and marketing. We haven’t built out services for the unique needs of inventors and aren’t able to consult with or partner with inventors.

While we can’t consult with inventors, we do want new toy inventors to succeed and happily launch their new toys into the hands of fans. If you’re serious about designing and inventing toys, we’d strongly encourage you to do your homework – starting with these excellent resources:

Attend a Toy Fair in person as a toy designer/inventor- annual trade shows where the toy industry gets together and shares their upcoming releases for the upcoming year. The most important toy fairs are:

Find and join a local inventor’s group, grassroots association, or meetup. Happy Worker continues to be an active participant in a number of inventor groups and communities. They’re a great way to meet other inventors – including those who have already created, designed, developed and commercialized their ideas.

We produce our toys in China with longtime factory partners. We know people can have questions and concerns about manufacturing overseas, but we love it for more reasons than we can list (and our clients love the high quality results). Below are some more resources about manufacturing overseas, but please contact us if you have more questions.

No, sorry. Even if it’s sort of toy-like or made of similar materials, we still aren’t the right match. Happy Worker specializes in making vinyl figures, action figures, figurines, statues, plush toys, squishy stress balls, and a few other types of collectibles listed here.

If your creation doesn’t fall into one of these categories, we recommend finding a manufacturer with experience making the thing you want to make. Sorry we can’t help with more specific recommendations.